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Topic: What's your other Obsession?

Ok, we all love Rails. We wish Rails was a tangible object that we could cuddle with at night and would light up the more we squeezed it.

But most of us have lives outside of rails (not counting ryanb of course What else in your world are you so very proud of?

I recently bought a Zune, and it has re-ignited my passion for hi-fi audio equipment. Ever since my grandpa taught me about crossovers, speakers and amplifiers as a little kid I have been fascinated with audio. I've been through many cd players, 6 minidisc players, 2 ipods and now 2 zune's(one for the wife). I have like 7 pairs of headphones and three headphone amplifiers, plus a collection of other stereos and speakers. I've spent more money than I care to post publicly(my wife may read this someday), and even started a website (http://ipodstudio.com). I've even built my own headphone amplifier and cables.

It's been lots of fun, and I'm glad I can enjoy it again. Thankfully now I can actually afford the habit.

Re: What's your other Obsession?

That's awesome, I've always thought it would be fun to play piano. I used to play bass guitar in high school, I was in a punk band. Not really high on the musical food chain, but it kept me out of trouble. Oh those were the days.

Re: What's your other Obsession?

I've been sitting here trying to think of a way to respond to this that won't make me sound like a total nerd (and that in and of itself is probably telling).

I like to fancy myself a writer, so I spend a lot of time writing... though mostly the result is a hard drive littered with the unfinished beginnings to a million short stories, novels, and movie scripts. Likewise, I also spend a lot of time reading. Reading is the best way to learn how to write.

I used to go out shooting (photos, not bullets) with a friend of mine, but my camera broke a couple of months ago and I haven't had a chance to get it fixed.

Since I really don't care for the cold, I tend to become a hermit in the winter. In the summer, though, I like hiking (and especially exploring creepy places in the middle of the night).

And I'm a sports junkie (go Yankees!). I'm going to a Celtics-Clippers game next week and possibly a URI-UMass (basketball) game tomorrow.

Re: What's your other Obsession?

I go through so many obsessions! It used to be World of Warcraft but lack of money and too much TV has put a stop to that (for now). My two main obsessions at the moment are Stargate (SG1 and Atlantis) and hamsters (of which I'm planning to get two in the near future - and I'm already obsessing).

Re: What's your other Obsession?

I DJ and run my own club night www.diskokitten.co.uk in Edinburgh, I play house music and DJ out at various clubs regularly I also run my own freelance graphics design company doing CD designs flyers etc for DJ's, artists and record labels in the club scene across the UK.

Re: What's your other Obsession?

My wife would say I become quickly obsessed with various hobbies and gadgets, which is probably true. With two kids aged 2 and 8 months running around, I don't have the opportunity to be as obsessed as I'd like to be in certain areas, particularly rails. However, here is a short list of my various obsessions:

I. Learning Japanese -- I like to say I have the vocabulary and conversational abilities as a second grader in Japan, but that's probably a stretch, I imagine most 4 year olds in Japan can speak better than I can. I've limped my way through conversations and am always improving.

II. Disc Golf -- It's a little cold at the moment, so I don't get to play much right now, but I really enjoy getting out on the courses and throwing a disc around.

III. Contract Bridge -- Yes, I love the card game bridge. It is one of the most complex and exciting card games around, it's just too bad that anyone my age thinks you need to be 60+ to play. I hop on Yahoo! Bridge on occasion to get a fix when I cannot find anyone to play with in real-life.

These are probably the big three and the most current.

Most code examples are usually pulled out of the air and not tested. Use at your own risk!

Re: What's your other Obsession?

Very cool.

@Josh, your cross-section of writing and photography reminds me of some commentary on a Belle & Sebastion DVD. Stuart David was telling a story about how a friend of his borrowed his camera, but she accidentally broke it. In exchange she gave him a "Space Pen". So what he started doing is writing down the pictures instead of using a camera. He sits in a coffee shop, or whatever and writes down a particular scene or situation. Kind of interesting.

Re: What's your other Obsession?

I'm a doer of many, master of none. In the summer I kayak as much as I possibly can. I also enjoy mountain biking and some road riding. At times I'm an avid reader and creative writer. My girlfriend is a ski instructor at Winter Park so you (and she) might think I'd be snowboarding all the time. I'm too excited about learning Rails right now.

Ryanb, you have furthered my belief that you're always near a keyboard.

Re: What's your other Obsession?

i like arcade style video games: shooters (ala gradius and r-type, not doom and quake), platformers, fighters, etc. If a game is reflex and twitched based, and has a high score board, I'll probably like it.

I own two unicycles and used to unicycle frequently. One of my unicycles has a 3' wheel on it, this is to make up for the lack of a drivetrain and when you push you can get going a good 20 mph on it. I bailed hard one day and really hurt myself on it, and I couldn't ride unis for a few months, and so that sort of pushed me out of the habit. I hope to get back into them again this coming spring.

One of my New Years Resolutions was to investigate religion. So I've been reading about Buddhism, the Bible, and going to Church and Bible study. Please no flame wars over this, this is merely a current interest of mine. If you are not agreeing, just move on

Me and many of my friends now own Wiis, so we are often playing that too.

Oh and I guess I should say I also play dance video games a lot. They are (literally) how I stay thin in the winter

Re: What's your other Obsession?

Dang tortoise. It's amazing the similarities in our hobbies. I used to ride a unicycle and I play DDR (dance dance revolution) frequently. I juggle too. Okay, I think my hobbies are all covered now. I'll be quiet.

Re: What's your other Obsession?

I wish I had more time to play video games, I think the Wii looks really cool.

Actually, if I had more time I would get into woodworking and carpentry. My dream retirement would be writing software that designs audio components and speakers that I build myself. Someday, I'm still young.

Re: What's your other Obsession?

ryanb wrote:

Dang tortoise. It's amazing the similarities in our hobbies. I used to ride a unicycle and I play DDR (dance dance revolution) frequently. I juggle too. Okay, I think my hobbies are all covered now. I'll be quiet.

nice I juggle too, but I can just do the basic cascade or whatever it's called.

Re: What's your other Obsession?

I don't think I can compete with those. The Danger-lifestyle involves biking everywhere I can (though not much in the Seattle winter), photography (we got a Canon Rebel XTi as a wedding gift), I did capoeira for a while a year ago but I haven't practiced in a long while.

Man. It's hard to think of computer-less hobbies. Maybe I need to get out more...

Re: What's your other Obsession?

danger wrote:

I did capoeira for a while a year ago but I haven't practiced in a long while.

I remember the training team from Only the Strong (the only capoeria movie in existence I believe) came to the dojo I was a student at, it was pretty cool. (I was doing judo and ju-jitsu at the time, and I was like 13 so this was a looooooong time ago)